Pro Tip of the Day - sound tests

Pro tip: Hearing the music in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back any time you want

Will — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 11:54:38 +0000

If you're a fan of the Star Wars movies, there's a good chance that you're also a fan of the musical score from the series. And if you liked the score from the movies, odds are that you want to listen to it in any form, right?

Well, then good news!

If you pop your copy of The Empire Strikes Back into your NES, and when the "A Long Time Ago..." appears

Press Left + Select on Controller 1. Done right, you'll be taken to a screen where you get to hear each of the musical selections from the game!

And who wouldn't want to hear these iconic songs, represented in their 8-bit forms?

Pro tip: Listening to the sounds of Arcana any time you want

Will — Mon, 17 May 2010 11:42:41 +0000

I never really spent as much time with Arcana as I'd have liked, mostly because every time I scraped together a couple of bucks it was already gone from the rental shop.

But if you did and you want to hear some of the music in the game without actually playing through it, you could go to the title screen

Then hold L + R and press B on Controller 1. Done right, you'll see one of the most boring Sound Test screens I've ever seen

How exciting!

Pro tip: Starting on whatever level you want in Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts

Will — Thu, 06 May 2010 12:10:30 +0000

Like pretty much every other game in the series, Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts is a kind of tough game. And that means that unless you spend a lot of time getting good at it, you're never going to see the advanced stages.

Unless...

You go to the Options screen

Highlight 'Exit' and press and hold L + Start on Controller 2 and press Start on Controller 1. Done right, you'll see a second Options screen

Letting you pick where you want to start along with letting you hear whatever music in the game you want!

Which means that you'll finally be able to see what the later stages look like!

Pro tip: Lots of tests in Vegas Dream

Will — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:20:17 +0000

I played Vegas Dream a lot, but never really got what you might call 'good' at it. So I like to use various tests to check out all of the content that I might have missed.

If you start a new game

And then press

Up, Down, Right, Left, Up, Down, Right, Left, A, B, A, B, B

At the Game Select screen, you'll hear a noise. Then you've got several options at your disposal.

Hold A + B and press Start to enter Message Test Mode

Move the cursor to Blackjack, hold A and press Start to see the ending

Move the cursor to Roulette, hold A and press Start to play the Last Chance Slot Machine

Move the cursor to Slot Machine, hold A and press Start to check out a Face Test

Move the cursor to Keno, hold A and press Start to check out the Sound Test

You'll have to reset the game and to the code again once you get into one of these modes if you want to try out the other ones.

Pro tip: Final Fight's secret option screen

Will — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:17:37 +0000

Final Fight is a port of the arcade game of the same name. But unlike the arcade game, you can't just keep pumping quarters into it to brute-force your way through it, you have a finite amount of lives and continues to work with.

But you have a secret weapon.

At the title screen

Hold down the L button and press Start, and you get a hidden Option screen!

You get to adjust all kinds of things here: difficulty, extra lives, frequency of additional lives, there's a sound test to listen to, and you can even turn the 'Extra Joy' on or off.

I like to turn the 'Extra Joy' on.